The 20 Best Alien Movies Of All Time

by JustJonAllen | created - 04 Dec 2016 | updated - 04 Dec 2016 | Public

Rules are simple: Movie must contain an intelligent being not from earth. Movie must contain earth. - Meaning it can't just be a movie about another planet that doesn't relate to earth. Thats just a syfi film in my opinion.

Two honorable mentions at the end.

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1. Arrival (II) (2016)

PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

81 Metascore

A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg

Votes: 771,254 | Gross: $100.55M

I left the theatre finding no reason why I didn't just watch the best movie of the year. I was impressed with the way this film dealt with the concept of time. We aren't hit with the "butterfly effect" issues of time travel, instead we are invited to imagine what if time was not linear at all but actually just the way we as humans process events. Arrival does some great stuff like prompting me to think about why humans cannot simply unite to solve problems. I also loved the fact that I was challenged to think about the way in which I love. I got two kiddos and a wife and I can't imagine a day without them. I think watching this movie made me appreciate those relationships. In the film our protagonist is faced with the knowledge of some loves in her life. The "Choices" she makes from there are intricate and I love the way each relationship in this movie symbolizes the broader relationship the characters are dealing with. Watch this film, stop what you are doing and watch it!

2. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 950,883 | Gross: $78.90M

3. The Thing (1982)

R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

57 Metascore

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur

Votes: 466,710 | Gross: $13.78M

4. Aliens (1986)

R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

84 Metascore

Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser

Votes: 763,152 | Gross: $85.16M

5. E.T. (1982)

PG | 115 min | Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi

92 Metascore

A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace

Votes: 437,569 | Gross: $435.11M

6. District 9 (2009)

R | 112 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

81 Metascore

Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.

Director: Neill Blomkamp | Stars: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Vanessa Haywood

Votes: 716,908 | Gross: $115.65M

7. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

71 Metascore

A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson

Votes: 736,992 | Gross: $100.21M

8. Predator (1987)

R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Horror

47 Metascore

A team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.

Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Elpidia Carrillo

Votes: 454,938 | Gross: $59.74M

9. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

83 Metascore

An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe

Votes: 85,768

10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

92 Metascore

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan

Votes: 54,766

11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

PG | 138 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

90 Metascore

Roy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon

Votes: 216,906 | Gross: $132.09M

12. Contact (1997)

PG | 150 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

62 Metascore

Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt

Votes: 293,139 | Gross: $100.92M

13. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

PG-13 | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

76 Metascore

A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable.

Director: Dan Trachtenberg | Stars: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., Douglas M. Griffin

Votes: 354,806 | Gross: $72.08M

14. Men in Black (1997)

PG-13 | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

72 Metascore

James, an NYC cop, is hired by Agent K of a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth. Together, they must recover an item that has been stolen by an intergalactic villain.

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio

Votes: 613,012 | Gross: $250.69M

15. The Mist (2007)

R | 126 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

58 Metascore

A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.

Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher

Votes: 340,430 | Gross: $25.59M

16. Super 8 (2011)

PG-13 | 112 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi

72 Metascore

During the summer of 1979, a group of friends witness a train crash and investigate subsequent unexplained events in their small town.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Elle Fanning, AJ Michalka, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney

Votes: 367,565 | Gross: $127.00M

17. Transformers (2007)

PG-13 | 144 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

61 Metascore

An ancient struggle between two Cybertronian races, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, comes to Earth, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a teenager.

Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson

Votes: 674,884 | Gross: $319.25M

18. Independence Day (1996)

PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

59 Metascore

The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.

Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell

Votes: 605,694 | Gross: $306.17M

19. Paul (2011)

R | 104 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

57 Metascore

Two English comic book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.

Director: Greg Mottola | Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Mia Stallard

Votes: 266,147 | Gross: $37.41M

20. Signs (2002)

PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

59 Metascore

A widowed former reverend living with his children and brother on a Pennsylvania farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields, which suggests something more frightening to come.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin

Votes: 385,754 | Gross: $227.97M

21. Chronicle (2012)

PG-13 | 84 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

69 Metascore

Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery underground. Soon they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

Director: Josh Trank | Stars: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly

Votes: 264,483 | Gross: $64.58M

22. Mars Attacks! (1996)

PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi

52 Metascore

Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.

Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Annette Bening

Votes: 243,546 | Gross: $37.77M



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